


Referral

by versaphile



Category: Legion (TV)
Genre: Background Clark/Daniel, Background David/Syd, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e09 Chapter Nine, Friendship, Gen, Late Night Conversations, Missing Scene, Season/Series 02, Tea, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 01:44:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18768646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/versaphile/pseuds/versaphile
Summary: Post-Chapter 9. What Clark does not need, after the day he's had, is to be woken up in the middle of the night because their newly-resident unstable mutant god can't sleep.





	Referral

**Author's Note:**

> For Bluebirds/apocalypsedeterrent.
> 
> Thanks to mossomness for betaing!

What Clark does not need, after the day he's had, is to be woken up in the middle of the night because their newly-resident unstable mutant god can't sleep.

Clark shouldn't be at work anyway. He should be home with Daniel, curled up together and blissfully asleep. But instead here he is, getting dressed and grabbing his cane. Clark would wonder how this became his life, except he knows exactly how it became his life. And it's entirely his own fault for not just pushing the button and electrocuting David Haller out of existence when he had the chance. Or even before that. When David was unconscious it would have been so easy to just shoot him in the head.

Clark knows he should try to avoid thoughts like that now that David's back. But he's been thinking them a lot for the past year and the habit's hard to break. And it's fine. He prefers honesty between them. If only David would do him the favor of being honest back.

The Vermillion first spotted David wandering the halls, looking-- Fairly devastated. But by the time Clark gets to him, he's sitting in the cafeteria, giving a thousand-yard stare to the empty food boats as they float past.

Mostly empty. The occasional plate of toast floats past, or some fruit. Late night snacks. Clark spots a cup of tea approaching and times his arrival so he grabs it just as he sits down. 

David blinks, surprised, and straightens up. Stares at him. Clark drops the teabag into the steaming water, gives it a stir. Ponders the sugar, the cream. Decides against them. His childhood ice cream binges are fresh on his mind.

When it's clear that David's just going to keep staring at him, Clark accepts the burden of speaking first.

"Can't sleep?" 

David looks away. A lot of emotions flash across his face very quickly. Horror, guilt, fear. Interesting. He tries to hide them behind stubborn defiance. "Not tired," he lies, obviously. He looks as exhausted as Clark feels.

He's not fooling anyone with that act.

David hears that thought and frowns, annoyed. "Why are you here?" he challenges.

"Is that an existential question, or--" Clark teases.

"I don't need your help," David says. "Or your threats. Just leave me alone." He curls in on himself like a child. Like Buster when he's upset. 

Clark sometimes wonders if becoming a father made him too soft for his job. But for some reason, only David Haller makes him wonder that.

"I couldn't sleep either," Clark lies. 

David doesn't look like he believes him. But his defiance fades anyway, not completely but it's a start. He stares at the boats again. Clark tries to sip the tea but it's too hot. He blows on it, then sets it back down.

"When do they start serving breakfast here?" David asks.

Clark glances at the clock. "Not for a few hours."

David slumps, disappointed. When the next plate of toast floats by, he takes it with resignation and frowns over the packets of jam.

"How did it go with Cary?" Clark asks, finally. "Did the amplification tank work?"

David goes very still. He stares at the toast. "Yes," he says. "No."

Clark picks up the mug, blows on the tea again. "Yes or no?"

David clams up again. He's different than he was earlier, before the tank. Something definitely happened in there, the question is what. 

"Nothing happened," David lies, defensive. He struggles with a jam packet, then opens it too fast and spills it on his fingers. He wipes his fingers on the toast and then starts sucking them clean. 

"Here," Clark says, tossing him a napkin, even though David already has one and just isn't using it. David wipes his hand on the new napkin, then stares at the toast like it killed his dog.

"You know, when I have something on my mind, I find it helps to talk about it," Clark says. "My husband's a good listener."

David gives him a baffled look. "You want me to talk to your husband?"

That wasn't what Clark meant, and yet-- "Would you?" he asks, curious.

David's expression says he would not.

"Or you could talk to me," Clark offers. "I'm also a good listener."

"You?" David asks, skeptically.

"It's true," Clark says. "Most of my job these days is listening to your friends. They've been very worried about you."

David's expression is a surly mixture of 'they should have worried more' and 'they shouldn't have worried at all.' "Well I'm fine. I'm here, they don't have to worry."

Clark has been watching David all day, in person and over the surveillance feeds. Fine is the last thing he is, and everyone is absolutely worrying more.

Amnesia and evil twins... Ptonomy said he couldn't get more than a few flashes off of David. Maybe he really couldn't remember what he did for a year. Maybe the tank helped him remember.

David looks up from the toast and stares directly at Clark. Then he looks around them, furtive, and then looks away, guilty, frustrated.

Clark gives his tea another stir. It's finally cool enough so he takes a sip. "What happened in the tank-- You don't have to tell me. But you need to tell someone."

David gives him a vulnerable look. It cuts right through all of Clark's emotional armor and into his heart. It's the same look that got to Clark a year ago, when he was sitting across from David in a fake interrogation room at the bottom of a pool. 

It's a look that says: _I'm lost, I'm confused, I need help. Please, please help me._

Clark really wishes that David would let himself be helped. Melanie was always good at that kind of thing, but Melanie's-- Not herself these days. She also needs to let herself be helped. But they're not in Summerland anymore.

"I can't," David says, finally.

"You can't?" Clark echoes.

David stares at him, unable to explain.

It's not Clark's son he's reminded of now. It's himself, last year. It's the men who've served under him and survived-- Terrible things. Whatever happened that year, whatever David remembered in the tank-- 

Clark reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He pokes through it until he finds what he's looking for. He pulls out the well-worn card.

"Last year, after I survived your friends burning me alive, I needed help," Clark says. "I talked to Daniel, but that wasn't enough. You should talk to Syd. But Syd won't be enough."

David takes the card, wary. Reads it. 

"I'm not crazy," David says, annoyed.

"Neither am I," Clark says. "But you're in pain. She can help the pain stop. That's what doctors are for. Therapists."

David doesn't look convinced. But then he did spend his life misdiagnosed as insane because he had Amahl Farouk living inside him. His experiences with the mental health system haven't been-- Positive.

Except for Summerland. Summerland helped David. Clark really misses Melanie, and that's not something he ever thought he'd do.

"Keep the card," Clark says. "Think about it."

David doesn't throw the card back at him, and Clark considers that a victory. He looks at the clock again. He's done as much as he can for now, so he grabs his cane. Stands up.

"Don't let Syd wake up without you," he says. "She'll be upset."

David looks at him, confused, and then-- Realizes. "Right," he says, like-- He has to remember that it's been a year. That Syd's been looking for him, worrying, for all that time. If Clark was away from Daniel for a year, that's not something he would ever forget.

David hesitates, then stands up. He heads for the door, his steps quickening as Clark's words sink in. He glances back at Clark once, and then he's headed for the stairs, too impatient for the elevator.

Clark walks over to David's side of the table and picks up the card. He slides it back into his wallet. He's not surprised. It always takes a few tries. Clark didn't accept he needed help until after he got back in the field, until after David was taken. Maybe by the time they find Farouk and rescue Oliver, David will be ready. Clark just hopes that won't be too late.


End file.
